The Book of Skulls is a fantasy novel by Robert Silverberg, which was first published in 1972. It was nominated for the Nebula Award in 1972, and both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1973.
The story concerns four students who discover a manuscript, The Book of Skulls, which reveals the existence of a sect, now living in the Arizona desert, whose members can offer immortality to those who complete its initiation rite. To their surprise, they discover...
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The Book of Skulls is a fantasy novel by Robert Silverberg, which was first published in 1972. It was nominated for the Nebula Award in 1972, and both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1973.
The story concerns four students who discover a manuscript, The Book of Skulls, which reveals the existence of a sect, now living in the Arizona desert, whose members can offer immortality to those who complete its initiation rite. To their surprise, they discover that the sect survives, and is willing to accept them as acolytes. But for each group of four who enter the rite, two must die in order for the others to succeed - one by murder, the other by suicide.
Successive chapters are told from the viewpoints of each of the four students, giving the multiple views of the events and of the characters of the four, since each is seen from both his own and each of the other's point of view.
The events of the novel form a journey of self-discovery for each of the viewpoint characters. The nature and true...
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